Insights from Boots on the Ground

Per our routine at NWIRC, in July we convened one of our bi-annual staff get-togethers. It was two days that included our fiscal year-end retrospective – reflecting on achievements, challenges, and lessons learned – as well as planning for things to come. It was also a great time for all of our staff to hear first-hand a recap from our ‘boots on the ground’ Strategic Business Advisors of trends they are hearing and seeing at manufacturing companies in the northwest and north central PA regions they cover.

As expected, each of their summations were very similar even though manufacturing industries in each area is often varied. Their observations won’t be a surprise to those working in the industry as they also align with what is going on nationally. Most of their insights fall under five themes and, as they discussed, they also noted possible strategies or solutions.

Most manufacturing companies know this all too well. But in some areas of northwestern PA, it’s not just a limited talent pool – but also limited overall population. Limited talent exacerbates the skills gap, slows production cycles, and increases recruitment costs. Possible strategies include partnering with educational institutions and organizations on training programs, connecting with high schools to offer experiences for students to explore career paths, offering competitive wages and benefits to attract from neighboring states and regions, and offering flexible scheduling options where feasible to expand the talent pool. They are seeing more and more companies focusing internally on their company culture and developing their people in order to attract and retain workers.

Companies are moving forward with, or starting exploration of, automation solutions to enhance productivity and efficiency. It’s important that all companies consider going down this path in order to combat the war for talent, but also to reduce costs, improve accuracy, and accelerate production cycles. Solutions for companies recognizing the importance of automation include training existing workforce on technologies to upskill employees now – because it’s coming sooner than later, evaluate ROI of possible automation investments to ensure long-term profitability, and consider robotics to automate repetitive tasks – especially for less desirable positions.

While there are companies recognizing the need to start automating, there are still some resistant to change and the adoption of new technologies. This latent mindset ultimately will result in higher operational costs, reduced competitiveness, and missed growth opportunities. The over-arching strategy here should be to foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement – this will help you attract and keep talent too! Provide leadership training to cultivate a proactive approach to change management. Learn about the successes of other companies in our region and how they have embraced change and made significant improvements.

Many companies in the region are over-reliant on a limited range of products or services, or just a few customers. Diversification minimizes risks from market fluctuations and expands customer-base. Strategies to address include conducting market research to identify emerging trends and customer needs, developing new products to complement existing offerings, and forming strategic partnerships to enter niche markets or geographic regions.

There’s an increasing number of manufacturers saying that their number one priority in the next twelve months is cost reduction. Companies without a culture of innovation and continuous improvement will eventually experience increased costs, longer lead times, and quality control issues – ultimately limiting their ability to compete and grow. There are many strategies that aim at this challenge such programs to educate employees on the eight wastes and foster peer collaboration, implementing lean manufacturing principles, and adopting digital technologies for real-time monitoring.

As mentioned before, this information isn’t new or a surprise to most – but know that NWIRC continues to take the pulse of manufacturing in our 13-county service area and offers solutions to support regional companies.

Shout out to NWIRC’s Strategic Business Advisors: Tom Weible, Lisa Dach, and Andy Idzik for the discussions and projects they are working on every day – and driving impact for manufacturers.